CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

Reconciling Modern Animal Production Systems and Sustainability

By M Djuric, DVM

A consortium of 22 research partners from 11 countries has received a £10.6m grant from the European Union (EU) to improve pig and poultry production. This is the largest EU grant awarded in this field. The project aims at investigating ways to increase animal production quality, whilst limiting environmental impact and preserving profitability for the farming and animal food production sectors.

The research will be carried out by the Prohealth consortium, consisting of 10 academic partners, one European association, four industry partners, and seven small and medium-sized enterprises. The consortium has expertise in animal physiology and immunology, genetics and nutrition, veterinary science and epidemiology, socioeconomics, as well as welfare and production science of pigs and poultry. The consortium members come from Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and UK. The project was launched in Newcastle upon Tyne on 17 December and  will be co-ordinated by Newcastle University.

Limitations of Voluntary Plan for Phasing Out Non-Medical Antibiotic Use in Farm Animals in USA

By M Djuric, DVM

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently issued a guidance document on the use of antibiotics in farm animals. The document notes that excessive use leads to the spread of antibiotic-resistant diseases in both animals and humans. In the document, the FDA proposes that pharmaceutical companies voluntarily change some of their labelling and marketing practices to help phase out the use of certain antibiotics for enhanced food production.

All the drugs affected by this plan are antibacterial products, which have long been approved for the treatment, control or prevention of animal diseases.  However, the same antibiotics are often added to the animal feed or drinking water of cattle, pigs, and poultry to gain weight faster or use less feed to gain weight.

The agency is asking animal pharmaceutical companies to notify the FDA within the next three months of their intent to voluntarily make the changes recommended in the guidance document. Based on timeframes set out in the guidance document, companies would then have three years to fully implement these changes.

New £45m Veterinary School at University of Surrey, UK – Construction to Begin

M Djuric, DVM

The proposal to construct a new Veterinary School of Medicine at the Manor Park campus of the University of Surrey in Guildford, England, UK has been given planning permission by the Guildford Borough Council. This will be one of eight of veterinary schools in the UK.

The new Veterinary school will consist of three buildings.  The main academic building will include offices, teaching spaces, lecture theatres, research laboratories, a cafe and an animal clinical skills centre -  the new school’s flagship centre.

The animal clinical skills centre will include a haptics laboratory, which will feature simulators that will help students to develop their clinical diagnostic skills and mock veterinary surgery practise.

The University of Surrey will receive a grant from the Higher Funding Council for England for the clinical skills centre, which will include an animal examination area, as well as livestock and handling areas.

The new school of Veterinary Medicine will invest in 65 new posts within the university and joint academic posts with partner institutions, as well as numerous support staff roles.

Farm Animal Welfare Moves Up Business Agenda

By Miroslav Djuric, DVM, CAB International

 

The second report of the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare has been published with the expertise and support of animal welfare organisations, Compassion in World Farming (CWF) and World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).

70 companies from across Europe and the USA were assessed, representing food retailers and wholesalers, restaurants and food producers and manufacturers. Companies were assigned into six tiers according to their approach to the management of farm animal welfare and across three categories: Management Commitment and Policy, Governance and Policy Implementation and Leadership and Innovation.

The Report showed that 56% of companies have published formal farm animal welfare policies in 2013 (compared with 46% in 2012) and that 41% have published objectives and targets for farm animal welfare compared with 26% in 2012.

 

Guilt free chocolate anyone?

According to the BMJ this week, the average half life of a chocolate in a busy hospital ward is 51 minutes with some brands lasting longer than others. They last rather longer in my quieter office but still we have eaten a few in the run up to Christmas.

What if the food industry could create a guilt free chocolate? I expect the half life would decrease because the guilt factor would be reduced.

Angry and sad at Xmas: victims of adolescent bullying

There have been far too many stories recently of desperate teenagers committing suicide, and an unknown number of families today will be reeling from the discovery that their teenager is seriously self-harming because of bullying. Mobile phones and social networking sites have exacerbated an age-old problem so that there is nowhere to hide. 

Poison-pen letter writers are no longer adults in detective stories. They have been brought right up-to-date, and are alive and well reincarnated in teenagers. Incapable of empathy with their victim, remote bullying via texts, phones, videoclips and the internet makes it so easy & so much more devastating, reaching  beyond a school, covering entire towns & counties,  and as its not face-to-face, even less likely for the teenage bully to empathise.

There also seems to be more serious consequences to bullying these days:  beyond loss of confidence, our society is experiencing a rise in self-harming and suicide amongst teenagers. Is it because teenagers these days are so interested in relationships & celebrity, following soaps avidly, that they are posting the minutiae of their lives online for all to see as if they were part of a soap opera?

What is the research evidence available to understand what’s going on?

I took a look and discovered to my horror that being bullied in primary schools can set you up to self-harm when you are a teenager in your next school.  Being Bullied During Childhood and the Prospective Pathways to Self-Harm in Late Adolescence ,  was co-authored at Warwick University, UK. Their press release reveals that 16.5% of 16-17 year olds had self-harmed in the previous year, and 26.9% of these did so because they felt as though they ‘wanted to die’. Those who were subjected to chronic bullying over a number of years at primary school were nearly five times more likely to self-harm six to seven years later in adolescence.[see press

Furthermore, other research shows being both the bully and the bully-victim is linked to an increased risk of suicide or mental illness. I also discovered that self-harming is a very difficult habit to break.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, how big is your Carbon Footprint?

As part of the festive season this year, many of us will either buy a fresh Christmas tree, or we will bring an artificial one down from the attic.   Either way, a Christmas Tree often forms an important part of the festivities.  According to the National Christmas Tree Association, in 2012, US consumers purchased 24.5 million “real” trees compared to 10.9 million artificial trees.  However, of those that displayed Christmas trees in 2012, 83% had an artificial tree.  While many people believe a traditional live tree contributes to fighting climate change through carbon sequestration, others claim that an artificial tree can be used year after year without the need for fertilizers or pesticides. But which of these options is better for the environment?

New research claims microplastic pollution is harming marine life

Latest figures show that global production of plastic has risen to 280 million tons per year, with much of this entering the seas and oceans via ships, offshore platforms and fishing, coastal littering and sewage-related debris from rivers and storm drains. UNEP estimates that between 6.4 - 8 million tons of litter ends up in the oceans. The properties that make plastic useful, such as its resilience to degradation, can make it problematic once it is no longer needed.  A pair of studies from Plymouth University and Exeter University, investigated whether micron-sized pieces of plastic (as a result of weathering) that sink into mud or sand, are causing harm to species at the base of the food chain, that ingest this sediment during feeding. Both papers are presented in the journal Current Biology.

Mental Health – What can we learn from low and middle income countries?

“Turning the World Upside Down - Mental Health Challenge” is an open competition to celebrate projects and ideas from low and middle income countries (LIC) which could effectively be applied to major health challenges faced by high income countries.  Four case studies were pitched in a Dragon’s Den style challenge on Wednesday 27^th November at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  The event was also broadcast live as a webinar. The goal was to collect, promote and celebrate the approaches towards mental health (MH) from low and middle income countries.